Susan Rice: On second thought, there was no protest before the Benghazi attack

posted at 2:41 pm on November 27, 2012 by Allahpundit

Does this mean it’s no longer racist to oppose her nomination as Secretary of State? Or, since she’s now admitting her mistake, does this mean it’s really racist to oppose her nomination as Secretary of State?

I’m sure the left will tell us when the time is right.

Today, Acting CIA Director Michael Morell and I met with Senators McCain, Graham, and Ayotte to discuss my September 16th public comments regarding the attack against the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, and the intelligence assessments that formed the basis for those comments. I appreciated the opportunity to discuss these issues directly and constructively with them.

In the course of the meeting, we explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: there was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi. While we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved. We stressed that neither I nor anyone else in the Administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the Administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved.

The Administration remains committed to working closely with Congress as we thoroughly investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi and bring to justice the terrorists responsible for the tragic deaths of our colleagues, Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. We also look forward to the findings of the Accountability Review Board and the FBI investigation.

The White House press corps got Carney to say the magic words this afternoon too. For what it’s worth, Rice’s statement does jibe with what U.S. intel officials told the Wall Street Journal last month about what she knew and when. If you believe them, the first intelligence inklings that the whole “protest” storyline was crapola came on the evening of Saturday, September 15th, hours before Rice appeared on the Sunday shows to talk Benghazi. That Sunday morning, while she was making the rounds on TV, they collected more intel further debunking the protest claims. But then that raises other questions, which the Journal framed at the time:

Unanswered in the account is whose role it was to prevent Ms. Rice from broadcasting information that already risked being wrong. Also unanswered is why it took longer for the new information to come out publicly, even after the DNI revised its assessment.

Let me throw another one at you. Why was U.S. intelligence still leaning towards the protest theory on Sunday, September 16th, when a Libyan guard who was wounded in the consulate attack had already told McClatchy three days earlier that there had never been any protest? All they had to do was read the newspaper that Friday to realize the narrative they were handing Rice was in doubt. And here’s a fourth question, which I believe remains unanswered even now: How did the idea that there had been a protest over the Mohammed movie at the consulate get started in the first place? Was it just a matter of U.S. intel officials watching what happened in Cairo and blindly leaping to the conclusion that the same thing must have happened in Benghazi or was there actual circumstantial evidence of a protest at some point? The only evidence I’ve heard of after months of reading about this came from an AP story on October 27, in which an eyewitness claimed that one of the jihadis at the scene had pressured bystanders to chant about the movie while his crew was busy setting up roadblocks for the attack. The “spontaneous protest,” in other words, was propaganda manufactured by terrorists at the scene as the plot was being put in motion, but maybe the CIA heard about the chanting from another eyewitness and hadn’t yet figured out who was behind it when Rice was briefed. Is that the explanation? Or, as I say, was this pure half-assed guesswork early on, which they nonetheless dutifully passed along to Susan Rice for dissemination on America’s news shows?

Update: Jay Carney’s sick and tired of Obama’s flacks and mouthpieces being beaten up by the press, darn it:

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney grew testy with reporters Tuesday over questions about UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s role in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack.

“What is the point of the focus on this,” Carney asked of questions about Rice’s comments on the five Sunday shows days after the September 11, 2012 attack that killed four Americans signaling it was a spontaneous event. “It could have been me. We all relied on information from the intelligence community.”…

“What your question seems to suggest is that it is more important that I or others used talking points provided by the intelligence community than actually what happened in Benghazi,” Carney said.

Over in the Greenroom, Duane Patterson has some questions for the administration’s much-maligned spokespeople.

Breaking on Hot Air

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Comments

Your a despicable racist. Your views that black people are worthless garbage that can’t abide by decent standards are outrageous. Do you have a smiley face on the back of your sheet and hood? Of course all the people you mention have been treated exactly the same as Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, Al Gore etc. But of course the democrats love their racist like you verblue, that’s why you guys created eugenics and the KKK.

Someone should tell Verbaluseless that his race card has holes worn through it…

affenhauer on November 27, 2012 at 3:50 PM

Someone should tell you I’m not the one bringing up race.
I ain’t the one conflicted here so much…y’know?
Again we have to go through this tired exercide where the defense against an accusation that it’s ‘racist’ to attack Rice is that it’s ‘racist’ to defend her.
Merry go ’round, go ’round, go ’round…
Don’t deal the race card if you don’t wanna play it.

“What is the point of the focus on this,” Carney asked of questions about Rice’s comments on the five Sunday shows days after the September 11, 2012 attack that killed four Americans signaling it was a spontaneous event. “It could have been me. We all relied on information from the intelligence community.”…

Yeah, and so did President Bush on Iraq and WMD…but that was then and this is now…right?

Ah yes…the convenient and cynical embrace of MLK.
I almost offered a countdown for this ‘zinger’ to appear.
How well you know how much he would have stood on your side.
And Glenn Beck’s.
No doubt he’d have voted for Romney too, right?
Ha.

did Colin Powell take the fall for his WMD testimony? Oh wait! Colin Powell testified before we invaded Iraq on more than 1 occasion IIRC. The WMD evidence was staggering a priori. Nowadays, the post hoc evidence for the video was scant but the a priori evidence supported the terrorism angle.

thus Susan Rice testifying after the fact that this was about a video is like Colin Powell testifying in 2007 that the invasion of Iraq was about WMDs (after they hadn’t found any). It’s absurd on face, folks.

There’s still more to this. And don’t accept the term “CIA talking points.” Disgraced Gen. Petreaus already testified that his talking points did not include anything about a video. Someone else inserted that into the talking points and the last I read about it, that somebody just about had to be the Administration.

Now that Obama is safe in a second term, Rice can afford to come clean a little. The MSM will surely admit ‘some mistakes were made because of bad intel’, so GOP pursuit is simply a political witch hunt and racist. Accusations will fly against the GOP, while the MSM will never ask for more from the Administration.

Ah yes…the convenient and cynical embrace of MLK.
I almost offered a countdown for this ‘zinger’ to appear.
How well you know how much he would have stood on your side.
And Glenn Beck’s.
No doubt he’d have voted for Romney too, right?
Ha.

verbaluce on November 27, 2012 at 4:06 PM

Does not matter who he’d have voted for….only
what he BELIEVED IN. I know your little mind can’t wrap
around that theory, so I’ll sink back down into the
sewer with you for a moment.

Stephanie Cutter-remember her?? She took an azz beating on here.
I seem to recall she was White, in fact a Blonde.

Actually it is you in the mirror. You still refuse to say blacks should be treated as equals, because you know you don’t believe it. To say that they should means that Rice and obozo should be held accountable.

Really?
McCain is on Fox News talking about Benghazi/Rice?
Wow. That’s huge a twice daily occurrence.
And – let me guess – he’s offering that something…can’t really say what…just ain’t right. And that right now we have more questions than answers.
And maybe he’s saying there’s more we do not know then we do know right now.
An onion as metaphor…the many layers…
Sounds like he needs a special committe…that he would, like, be the chair of…maybe? “Can I, Can I, pleeeaaase??”

No it’s not. You are not for equality. Leftists never are. Nor are you for freedom and liberty, domestic or in Egypt, for ex. Obama and Hillary don’t denounce the dictatorial power-grab in Egypt, and you don’t either.

Until you declare yourself for all these things, you are what you are.

You sure are…nah, you’re ‘fun’ to banter with. You’re actually not as bad as lester or tommyhawk. You and sesqui were actually granted brains. It’s sad that you don’t utilize them for something more risky, but more satisfying by far.

I’ve given you about 5 chances to say black people should have the same standards and you have failed each time to do it. Instead you keep changing the subject. You have no idea how to make a point, let alone decide what’s silly.

I’ve given you about 5 chances to say black people should have the same standards and you have failed each time to do it. Instead you keep changing the subject. You have no idea how to make a point, let alone decide what’s silly.

Flange on November 27, 2012 at 4:40 PM

You first engaged me but referring my ‘KKK hood’ or something.
And now you’re imagining some “chances” you offered me to say something about “black people’.

What a total fool you are. We’ve been nasty to Cankles/Shrillary/etc (Hill), Baghdad Bob (Gibbs), Howdy Doody (Carney), Lurch (Kerry), Washerwoman-Shultz and a host of other white people male and female.

Sure, I mean how could anyone think race is a component in all of this. What is there to back up such a theory?
Why they were just as harsh with Eric Holder on the F&F hysteria as they are with Susan Ri….
Nevermind.
Well, the vitriol directed at Holder and Rice is no more intense then when similar questions were raised about the competence and honesty of….um….ah, let’s see…um…
Obama?
Ok…ok…but then they also insisted Van Jones was an incompetent fool and…
dang!
You certainly can’t say that anyone’s unfairly maligned Valerie Jarret.
Lots of respect for her right here at HA.

verbaluce on November 27, 2012 at 3:41 PM

This is hilarious!

It’s incredibly stupid to point to three people of color and pretend that these are the only members of Obama’s administration that have been highly criticized on Hot Air.

Do you always try to appear stupid?

Do you really think that Rice would not get criticized for aggressively lying to the American people on multiple national television shows if she was an old, white man?

One of the things that amazes me (besides all of the other insane garbage that has gone on to cover-up what ever was REALLY going on that got Stevens into the situation in the first place – likely the reason he was left to die along with the SEALS) is that no one has noticed that a very light-skinned biracial woman seems to get darker and darker skinned every time she appears in public.

Does this mean it’s no longer racist to oppose her nomination as Secretary of State?

Of course not. It’s still racist.

It’s racist to oppose affirmative action in any and all forms. Incompetents must be given a chance to help make up for past discrimination. Opposing such a noble action is prima facie de facto evidence of racism.

What we do not understand is that it’s all about quantum physics, “those” people live in a different 4th dimension than the rest of us do. To them YESTERDAY, TODAY and TOMAROW, are all the same time plane and as such they are allowed to move between the pains at their will. Only Stephen Hawking and the Black Female Congressional Caucus under stand such things. The remainder of us must just stand in awe with blind admiration.

verbaluce on November 27, 2012 at 3:41 PM
What a total fool you are. We’ve been nasty to Cankles/Shrillary/etc (Hill), Baghdad Bob (Gibbs), Howdy Doody (Carney), Lurch (Kerry), Washerwoman-Shultz and a host of other white people male and female.
But you go abusing that chicken, hon. Bless your wee, wee heart.
kim roy on November 27, 2012 at 5:02 PM

Thank you!
This is what I have been awaiting.
Yes indeed…you have been nasty to many.

Thank you!
This is what I have been awaiting.
Yes indeed…you have been nasty to many.

verbaluce on November 27, 2012 at 5:36 PM

You really are a moron. First off all the first post of mine that you commented on said roughly the same thing. So you haven’t been awaiting. The whole point of what everyone has been trying to tell you is that white democrats get treated exactly the same as black democrats. So for anyone to claim criticism of Rice or obozo is racist is a blatant liar. It’s you who refuse to treat blacks the same.

Rice was a straw dog; the misdirection of a magic trick. She is a three card monte cutout meant to insulate the White House and yet lend some (here’s that word again) ‘gravitas’ for the cameras in hopes of distracting the sheeple.

How about this for a list of questions for not just one or two but EVERY witness, including those who have already cpme beofre the committee:

Why was the Ambassador in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9-11 without security?

Why was the Ambassador’s (and others) requests for security turned down and who made the decision to deny it?

Since (in his own words) the President claimed it was terrorism in the Rose Garden the next day was Amb. Rice sent out to misdirect and who gave her her talking points?

If the President gave (as he has stated) a direct order to ‘do everything possible to help our people on the ground’ WHERE IS IT?

If the President knew the day after the incident that this was a terrorist action, why did he allow Rice to go smokescreen?

Where is the footage from the drone taken during the attack and who saw it live?

Who gave the order to ‘stand down’?

Where is the testimony of the other people from the CIA annex who were on the ground before and during the attack?

If State didn’t feel the need for security for the Ambassador and he and others were killed as a result, why did we not send in enough ‘security’ to secure the site – even when the FBI teams hit the ground three weeks later? They only had a few hours to investigate the site and were forced to leave classified documents behind as a result of the ‘insecurity on the ground’???

If we are ‘still investigating and gathering information’ let’s forgo the final results (none of us will live that long) and take a look at the raw data.

Of course, NONE of these questions will be answered if even asked. The compromised (Petraeus)won’t answer and the faithful liars won’t either. Good luck to all on the ground in the hot spots around the globe; you are on your own. You will be sold out in order to protect the regime at any costs.

We are continually assaulted with spins, re-spins and misdirections.
Fast and Furious is off the radar with no answers or penalties. One Gun Runner in Florida got less time then a local contract go for stiffing me out of $2,000. The Benghazi incident has degenerated to a racist and sexist issue.

We The People must keep in mind that in Benghazi is about “They watched live” , “People asked for help” , “They got none”, “Four people died”.

Thank you!
This is what I have been awaiting.
Yes indeed…you have been nasty to many.
verbaluce on November 27, 2012 at 5:36 PM
Uh… your point is? We admit it. We cheerfully admit it.
SO?
Seriously, though, you posted all that crap, accused us of being racists so you can give us the equivalent of water is wet?
The pointlessness of your existence is truly saddening.
kim roy on November 27, 2012 at 5:57 PM

Never accused you of being racists.
My point was that the preemtive defensiveness is far more prevelant than
any actual accusations of racism.
So I see race as a factor for you guys and very present in your arguments. Again, I am not one who brought it up.

The lying dirtbags have successfully maneuvered the conversation from:
Why were US troops involved in a Libyan civil war with a semi ally as the leader without congressional consent?
Why were US troops subjected to UN authority and command without consulting congress?
Why were American Dignitaries and Armed Forces personnel pleas for help disregarded and left to die?
Why did the Lyin POTUS go before the UN days later and blame the attacks on a video when everyone knew it was a terrorist attack?
The RATS, and PRESSTITUTES have maneuvered the feckless Repunks away from impeachable, treasonous offenses to a possible blockage of the Sec of State appointment of latest sacrificial lamb of this lying corrupt regime.
These gutless Repunks make me ill. Throw their stupid, feckless asses out starting with Grahamnasty.

We are continually assaulted with spins, re-spins and misdirections.
Fast and Furious is off the radar with no answers or penalties. One Gun Runner in Florida got less time then a local contract go for stiffing me out of $2,000. The Benghazi incident has degenerated to a racist and sexist issue.

We The People must keep in mind that in Benghazi is about “They watched live” , “People asked for help” , “They got none”, “Four people died”.

Why?

jpcpt03 on November 27, 2012 at 6:02 PM

Strong words?!?!?!? You ain’t seen NUTHIN’ yet.

Strong ACTIONS with strong words will return our country to its destiny.

As more and more CITIZENS in fear for the loss of their country unite to hold these cowards, liars and thieves’ collective noses to the fire of patriotism, you’ll hear the most cowardly lies coming from their frightened mouths, to try to convince you of their innocence.

THEY HAVE NO INNOCENCE

And WE can prove it, using their own lies to convict them!!

We MUST demand proof and confirmation of every single one of their lies, constantly!

The Truth is what we’ve need around here for 50 years.

NOW is the time.

Let us grasp the Truth with both hands, and beat them to within an inch of their lives with it!!

Dunno – I can see how verbaluseless sees race as a factor in a lot of our comments; of course, most of his just scream out a preference for pre-teen Semitic males. You know, code words and all that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…